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The state of Israel was built on land ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian owners. A majority of Palestinians are refugees, most of whom are stateless.

Since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel's colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal, and called for effective remedies.

People of conscience in the world have historically fought the injustice of apartheid through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions. As in the struggle of South Africans against apartheid, we in the Hudson Valley support the Palestinians in their fight for justice.

RE/MAX Israel has a commanding presence in the Israeli real estate market, referring to itself as “the number one company in Israel”. Most disturbingly, RE/MAX Israel is also the leader in selling land in the Palestinian West Bank territory to Israeli settlers - land that under international law is illegally acquired.

As a result, RE/MAX Israel is directly contributing to the oppression of the Palestinian people under Israeli Occupation. This is the same Israeli Occupation that has caused 40% of Palestinians in Gaza to be unemployed and 80% of those living in the areas of the West Bank under direct Israeli control to lack a steady supply of food. These terrible conditions existed even before the most recent escalation of attacks by Israel which have lead to the death of over 2,000 Palestinians, including over 500 children, and the destruction of over 10,000 homes in the Gaza Strip. (from: Code Pink)

The United Nations published a report in 2013 indicating that RE/MAX LLC, the US-based parent company, can be “held accountable” for the crimes of RE/MAX Israel, over which it “has constant interaction and influence.” Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention mandates that the “Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies,” and UN Security Council Resolution 446 explicitly states that Israel’s settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, in which RE/MAX Israel is operating, “have no legal validity.”
(from: Mondoweiss)

Talking points for conversation with RE/MAX agents
You don’t have to include all the talking points. Use one or more that you are comfortable with. You are informing agents rather than warning about consequences. If they want to relay your complaint to a supervisor or a higher-up, that would be even better.

- Denver-based, RE/MAX International is directly profiting from the selling of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank through RE/MAX Israel, which is the leading real estate company operating in the occupied territories.

- These sales are are racially discriminatory because Christian and Muslim Palestinians are excluded, a violation of Article 13 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. In fact, the settlements are built on land confiscated from Palestinians. Their homes and olive groves are bulldozed to make way for new apartment buildings so that RE/MAX can make a profit from selling stolen property.

- The transfer by an occupying country “of parts of its own civilian population into occupied territory” violates Article 49 of of the Fourth Geneva Convention. RE/MAX makes millions by flouting this international law that was affirmed by 196 countries in 1949, and applied to all nations by the UN Security Council in 1993.

- RE/MAX sales in the West Bank have drawn condemnation from human rights activists from around the world including the UN Rapporteur to the Occupied Territories. The building of these illegal settlements has universally been declared as a major impediment to the creation of any Palestine state, the declared goal of US foreign policy for the last 25 years.

- The United Nations published a report in 2013 indicating that RE/MAX LLC, the US-based parent company, can be “held accountable” for the crimes of RE/MAX Israel, over which it “has constant interaction and influence.” UN Security Council Resolution 446 explicitly states that Israel’s settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, in which RE/MAX Israel is operating, “have no legal validity.”

Over 20 agents for the real estate corporation RE/MAX Israel, working in at least eight offices, are selling many millions of dollars worth of illegal properties in over 15 settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Mondoweiss has compiled a non-exhaustive list of RE/MAX Israel offices and agents engaging in these illegal transactions (embedded below).

In 2014, the Electronic Intifada revealed that the real estate company was selling illegal Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both of which are recognized as occupied territories under international law.

A 2013 United Nations report maintains that RE/MAX International, which is headquartered in the US, can be “held accountable” for RE/MAX Israel‘s illegal activity.

Big Profits

RE/MAX Israel offices Momentum, Vision, Agam, Atid, Trend, More, Express, and Hazomet have sold illegal properties in the occupied Palestinian territories. Homes are for sale not just in occupied East Jerusalem, but also in settlements located kilometers beyond the Green Line.

US-based multinational RE/MAX is marketing properties in illegal Jews-only settlements built on stolen Palestinian land such as Ariel, near Salfit in the West Bank.

Agents working for the US-headquartered real estate giant RE/MAX are promoting themselves as specialists in property built in Israel’s settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

The Colorado-based corporation which says it operates in nearly 100 countries was identified as responsible by a 2013 United Nations’ probe for how its Israeli franchises sell houses and apartments in the occupied West Bank.

Despite that criticism, many RE/MAX representatives are continuing to handle such property.

Shlomo Benzaquen, a RE/MAX agent, states on a website run by the company that his “area of expertise” includes a number of Israeli settlements.

He particularly recommends Kokhav Yaakov, Tel Zion and Adam (also known as Geva Binyamin) as “communities” which “offer tremendous value to young families and investors looking for high returns.”

In fact, all of these “communities” are Israeli settlements inside the West Bank and are illegal under international law. Their construction and growth violates the Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into a territory that it occupies.

The Electronic Intifada contacted Benzaquen by telephone, asking him why he is selling property built on illegally occupied land in East Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank.

“I don’t know what illegally occupied is,” he said. “I deal with Jerusalem. I’m not sure what you mean by East Jerusalem.”

Asked if he was familiar with the Fourth Geneva Convention, Benzaquen replied “I’m not getting into politics” before hanging up.

His colleague Hillel Weinschneider, meanwhile, says on a RE/MAX website that his “area of expertise” is Ramat Eshkol and Givat Hamivtar.

Both of those settlements are in occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel claims to have annexed in direct violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

High prices

Scores of properties in the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem) are currently listed as for sale on RE/MAX websites.

Some of them are on the market for high prices. RE/MAX is trying to sell a three-bedroom house in Jerusalem’s Old City for $1.7 million. According to RE/MAX, the house was “built over 600 years ago by the Turks.”

A video for the same property posted to YouTube by Benzaquen, states that the “light train is just nearby.” That is a reference to a tram network which connects Israel’s settlements in East Jerusalem to other parts of the city.

The French corporation Veolia has faced years of criticism and activist campaigns for its large-scale involvement in building the Jerusalem light rail, which Palestinians see as a means of tightening Israel’s grip on their city.

RE/MAX’s Colorado headquarters did not reply to requests for comment.

Illegal

The firm has generally kept silent when its activities have been highlighted by Palestine solidarity activists. It did, however, issue a terse statement last year.

The statement tried to distance the firm’s headquarters from its Israeli franchise and noted that RE/MAX had reduced the number of its offices in the West Bank.

It failed to acknowledge that many of the agents handling property in East Jerusalem and the wider West Bank are working from offices in West Jerusalem.

But the company seems to be sensitive to activist criticism that it is involved in selling homes in illegal settlements within the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Searches on the RE/MAX Israel website suggest the company may be engaging in deliberate obfuscation of its West Bank settlement listings.

An interactive map of present-day Israel and the occupied West Bank displays red dots showing where RE/MAX-marketed properties are located. This map conveys the impression that it does little or no business in the West Bank.

However, if one searches for the names of individual West Bank settlements, the true story becomes clear.

For instance, a search for “Ariel” results in a listing of 12 properties in that settlement in the northern occupied West Bank near Nablus. However, switch through to the “map view” of the same search result, and the red dots over Ariel have been removed.

Similar obfuscation is evident while searching for properties in the settlements of Maaleh Adumim, Gilo and French Hill.

The map is a key online marketing tool for RE/MAX Israel. Those who search for a property handled by RE/MAX Israel are immediately taken to this map.

RE/MAX still has agents based in Maaleh Adumim, one of Israel’s largest settlements in the West Bank.

The anti-war group Codepink has set up a campaign targeting RE/MAX over its property sales in Israeli settlements.

Jodie Evans, a founder of Codepink, argued that it was dishonest for RE/MAX to claim that its Israeli franchise was unconnected to the Colorado headquarters.